The making of Impact

The making of impact: our learning journey

How do we prove that we are performing better than before and that our interventions ultimately lead to a child's healthy start in life? Max Foundation started on a journey last year to (re)new our impact. You might have seen the first results of our journey already in the news.

This is an exciting adventure for us! We hear from those close to us that they would like to see how such a process evolves. As being promoters of both impact and transparency, it's hard to ignore this perfect opportunity to share our experiences with you. So, we decided to create an online open-office-discussion series. We show you how we move from the first meeting of our project group to the development of an impact and evidence strategy to a new positioning and more.

We invite you to join the discussion while we seek to better understand, measure and prove the effectiveness of our work.

During the episodes, we deliberately choose to fully open-up which puts us in a very vulnerable position. Our apologies beforehand for the direct style of the blogs and the more-than-often blunt remarks, also towards are highly esteemed and appreciated advisors and relations.

We welcome your comments, from frustrations and doubts to constructive feedback!

Episodes

How do we prove (and communicate about) our impact? We strive for effectiveness, and value for money, but how do we measure it? Recently the board has raised the topic of impact. How can we really prove our claim of helping children in the most effective way? How can we communicate clearly and simply, through one key performance indicator (KPI) showing how many children’s lives we have improved, and how much it cost per child?

During a Mini-Masters from Effective Giving that I joined past May I was introduced to a framework for Effective Giving. The co-founder of Effective Giving, Kellie Liket, privately, expressed some doubts about Max. She recognized Max is passionate about cost-effectiveness but is concerned about our integrated approach which she believes is less effective as the most exceptional international single focussed non-profits.

At Max Foundation, we are constantly thinking about our impact. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as director, it’s that there’s always room for improvement. For every question we answer, a new one comes along. The developments in the WASH sector keep us constantly on our toes, and we’re not afraid to try new things! Even as we continue to learn and grow, our overall mission remains the same: to combat child mortality by promoting a healthy start in life. And seems that our dynamic approach has caught the attention of our peers.